Bangalore: Differing with the Congress high command’s suggestion to its Chief Ministers not avoid sharing a dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at public programmes, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said “just because someone says this, we can’t follow it. I will have to go by the protocol.”
Siddaramaiah’s statement is likely to embarrass the Congress and give more ammunition to the BJP. The BJP on Thursday, slammed the Congress over Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s decision to skip Modi’s programme in Nagpur claiming that the Congress was staying away as they felt “mocked”.
After the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Haryana had faced some awkward moments at public programmes attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress high command had advised them not to share dias with the Prime Minister at public places.
The Congress had said it is a conspiracy by BJP to embarrass its leaders. “The suspicion that Modi has dictator’s mentality is now coming true. To the date never a Chief Minister was humiliated in the presence of the Prime Minister at any function,” Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant had said.
“Modi supporters created disturbance and the PM did not utter a word. This is dangerous for the democracy,” the Congress spokesperson had said adding that they will not tolerate such incidents in the future.
